MarkLimacher.com

Each day I wake anew, and head furiously to the kitchen to make my coffee in anticipation of another day brimming with oppressive futility. My source of excitement lately has been a due diligence towards an alacritous autodidacticism. I drink some coffee, watch some Amy Goodman and then brace myself for some hardcore reading. I can’t find words to express how psychologically alive I’ve felt as of late, so much so that I’ve even stopped trying when others ask what I’ve “been up to”. There is, however, another more perilous reason for this inability to articulate my intellectual passion, and that is the very simple fact that so few people want to partake in it.

After reading Susan Jacboy’s The Age of American Unreason about a month ago, I was left sufficiently disturbed, enough to make several lifestyle changes, notably some serious distraction-mitigation from what she would call ‘video culture’. Her concept is not one easily summarized in brief because it refers both to technology (i.e. television, movies, computers, all screen interfaces) and behavior (i.e. constructs of importance surrounding said television shows, movies, games, etc). What was already very clear to me is that such media is now so ubiquitous, so thoroughly woven into our every day life, that to escape the oppressive forces of video culture distraction is a one-way ticket to loneliness of mind. Without respite, I can hear from the next room one of my roommates watching 6 hours of The O.C. one day, followed by 5 or 6 hours of Six Feet Under the next, followed by- you get the picture. Suspending my disbelief for a moment, let us presume we are talking about artful content (or more broadly speaking, something of craft and substance) in television media. Would it then by excusable to carry on one’s day in such a fashion? I don’t need the Jacoby to aid me in recognizing the psychological turpitude of being passively ‘engaged’ (if in fact it can be likened to engagement at all) for lengthy periods of time.

Is such a scenario a fair representation of the majority of society? The answer is yes. Absolutely without doubt. Our capitalistically predacious society makes sure that unless we are one of the sick sons-a-bitches who is able to rise to the top of the corporate oligarchy, we’re simply not going to have all that much free time on your hands. We will be working, hard, and when we are not working, we will be so physically and mentally and emotionally exhausted, we will want to forget the humiliation and dehumanization of the free market’s invisible hand wrapped tightly around our throats. And what better way to forget than to watch the screen(s) designed precisely for that purpose, so that when we do have extended free time, we not only want to “do nothing,” we have no idea how to do anything else. The down comforter of video culture is gloriously inviting, but it will smother and suck all that remains of our intellectual livelihood from our être (painfully performed by Alan Greenspan’s proboscis), and we will remain ignorant of it all.

Having long ago recognized the validity of Chomsky’s media theories (Manufacturing Consent et al.), I think a new component needs to be incorporated. It is clear we have demonstrable evidence that corporate media distorts, frames, omits, and occasionally fabricates information, but what is not clear is why there continues this stunning apathy when information about, say, the Honduras coup or the Saro Wiwa suit against Royal Dutch Shell is leaked through the protective corporate filter. It would be foolish not to acknowledge that a myriad of factors are at play in such a situation, but I would say that the insidious metastasis of video culture in our day to day life has a christ-load to do with it- why else would seemingly nobody want to talk to me about Zinn, Dennett, deLanda, E.O. Wilson, etc?

I must come clean:
I have been avoiding my blog because I have been feeling incredibly depressed at the state of my surrounding socio-politicaL atmosphere (yes- again).
It was this same feeling that kept me from blogging regularly for several years, not coming out of the shadows until the Obama inauguration really. Unfortunately, here I am with those same pangs of abject despair tugging at my heart.

I was really starting to think that for once in my life I would see the wheels of justice begin to turn again, having all but rusted in state from years of hideous abuse and distortion. Such, it would appear, will not be the case. President Obama appears to be taking a chilling centrist approach on seemingly everything, and worst of all has AGAIN been using this phrase “looking backwards” as a mechanism for doing gornisht.
What in fuck’s name is going on? Cheney is continually on television, we are hearing about endless atrocities with no justice in sight, American Idol is still more culturally valuable than my entire field, affordable health care is off the table, and Pelosi is the Antichrist- Is it still 2007?

On the upside, I have developed a plan for the summer. I creating a reading list for myself (please leave me suggestions), I have a few lessons lined up, and I will be watching a plethora of documentaries courtesy of Netflix. The downside is that most of the aforementioned activities will, with all likelihood, only worsen my depressive state. Hot damn.
I’m going to be taking a long overdue vacation to the great city of Montreal in a few weeks, and I fear that it’s going to take every ounce of will to drag my sorry ass back here. How about some Vaughan to forget our troubles.

As per usual, a clearing away of the clutter. I have practically OD’d on videos of the psychopathy conventions, er, I mean anti-tax-day-teabaggin’-festivals, so I’ll spare you the links.

I received an email earlier in the week from one of the editors of the book Neo-Confederacy: A Critical Introduction. It couldn’t be more apropos given my last post detailing the mounting secession movement right now. Mr. Sebesta’s blog, Anti-Neo-Confederate can be found here, and I’ve linked it in the ‘Friends of Mr. Limacher Section’. I will have to wait to write a little more on this subject, so expect a follow up, but I implore you to go have a look at the excerpts available on the link above.

Lastly, to the Ron Paul supporter who commented a few days ago, you’ll be pleased to know that Ron Paul is in support of the secession talk. All I have to say about Ron Paul, is all I ever have to say about Ron Paul- I can’t seem to understand what reality he lives in, because it can’t be the same one I grapple with every day.

I attended the American premiere of the Free Radicals program put together by Bernhard Zachhuber and Bady Minck with Klangforum Wien. I was salivating the entire time at being immersed in such brilliant new music (as per usuall), but dismayed by the audience’s total lack of respect and most basic education around said brilliant new music (as per usual). I am sad to say I live in a world where I cannot imagine for one god damn second that an American institution would EVER sign off on such a program. Scelsi, Xenakis, Feldman, Stockhausen on the same line-up? It would be easier for me to find a corroborating element in the four gospels. The new works present are equally enthralling, particularly the David Horne, Georges Aperghis and Theo Verbey works. There are so many other points that I would love to orate about, but for the time being, I have posted some video of the opening of the the show. Imagine this being done with live ensemble- the effect is totally captivating, despite maybe being a little on the nose.

note: the video in the below selections were created by Bady Minck

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Recently, I needed the ingredients to make a tomato & avocado salad. My live-in editor and I went to Agata & Valentina to make the purchase, and I was struck as I often am by the voluminous waste in the produce department. How self-obsessed can we possibly remain in this time of global crisis, to not give a god-damn about this tremendous rape of natural resources? Yes, oil and the way in which we continue to abuse it despite KNOWING it to be in finite quantities is an abhorrent mess, but our equal lack of respect for every other god-damned people/nation on this planet is perhaps a greater abhorrent mess. Honestly, how many fucking avocados do we need to let pile up and rot, just to make sure the shelves appear abundant? How many pounds of bananas turn putrid brown beside them in wait of the purchaser that never comes?

Unfortunately, I fear solutions may be hard to come by, at least as long as this remains a society of people who fill their bodies with shit. We eat so much poison in this continent that it takes every ounce of self-control to prevent myself from slapping the ignorant smirk off every PizzaHut patron’s face. It is because of our backward food priorities that we even find ourselves with rotting FOOD on the shelves. If it wasn’t for the lazy assholes who swamp the frozen/prepared food aisles in every single supermarket under the sun, there might just be more people buying things that wont rot their bodies and minds. Sadly I fear such a course of actions would destroy suburbs, because what are over-privileged, isolationist, fat-headed white folks going to do when they don’t have a use for their 60 cubic ton garage freezer?